Why Ban Any Talk About Me? A Sad Condom Writes a Letter

Dear I&B Ministry. Why don’t you like me? A sad condom pens his thoughts.

Dear I&B Ministry,

Why do you dislike me so? I am the top hat that protects, the rubber that deflects, and the sheath that ensures no bad boys intrude into someone else’s house.

I ensure safety. I keep STDs or sexually transmitted diseases at bay. Oh wait. You got a problem with the word ‘sex’ in the text above? Come now. We all do it. In fact, Indians do it the most! And because they forget to wear or don’t know about the top coat that is to be worn when it snows, our population is exploding.

Our teenage pregnancy rates are exploding, our abortion rates are exploding, and our STD and HIV rates are high.

Here’s something that might pique your interest.

Latex condoms, when used correctly, are 98-99% effective in preventing HIV transmission.

According to the latest UNAIDS 2016 data, we had over 80,000 new HIV infections and 62,000 AIDS related deaths. No, the HIV epidemic is not going away. India has the third highest prevalence of HIV in the world.

Oh there’s more. So much more.

The only way to stop STDs like gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis, that are transmitted only by genital fluids, is with regular use of condoms aka ME. There is an antibiotic resistant super gonorrhea that’s on the rise that cannot be treated with most known medicines. Do we really want to risk not talking about me?

Yes, you can still get STDs despite using a condom, but isn’t avoiding a bulk of those diseases still worth the effort of donning one?

Also Read: Shh... No condom talk between 6 am and 10 pm. Kids are watching

No Me = Unwanted Pregnancies and Abortions

Here are some statistics that really bother me, and should bother you too. A total of 15.6 million (1.56 crore) abortions took place across India in 2015 according to a new study published in the Lancet.

The study also estimated that half of the total 48.1 million pregnancies in 2015 were unintended. Now imagine if all those people had known about me and used condoms?

Around 53 percent Indians use modern contraception, but half the couples don’t know how to use me.

So… shouldn’t we be INCREASING advertisement around me instead of banning any mention of me in daylight waking hours? Psst, you do know what the smartphone owning ‘young’ people are doing between 10 pm and 6 am?

I am an important tool in our battle against unwanted pregnancies, disease and stigma. Yes stigma. I had a word with Dr V Sam Prasad, Country Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation India Cares.
And boy, he's upset:

It took 25 years of campaigning and we still have stigma around sanitary napkins in India. With condoms we are far behind. This is the time to increase awareness about condom use, to scale up the noise, not try to cancel it. Instead of focusing on the messaging of these advertisements, that condom is for both pleasure and protection, we are derailing the entire campaign.

Dr V Sam Prasad, Country Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation India Cares

A lot of progressive countries have actually de-regularised condom ads. Because they understand the impact knowledge about safe contraception has on young people, specially teens.

Here are more statistics for you to look at. Sixty percent of India's population is young. This population is sexually active, and living on half-baked facts.

You should be shouting about me from the rooftops, you should be placing machines vending me for free across colleges, you should be telling the world, the mothers and their children about me. Yes, even the child!

Because our children are the worst affected when they don’t know about my existence.

We need to be teaching them and talking to them and protecting them by empowering them with the right knowledge.

I am not a bad word, I ain’t a cuss word. I am the protector. I am a teacher.

Make me a dining room conversation. Bring me up as you talk to your teens about how their day went. Then ask them to pass the salt.

Yours truly,
The sad and mad-at-you Condom